Fire fears prompt Porsche to ask owners of latest hardcore GT3 to park up and
get their car inspected

Porsche in the UK has told owners of the newly launched 911 GT3 to stop driving their cars and bring them back to the dealership for a check-up as the parent company continues to investigate two cases in Europe where engine fires gutted the £100,000 car.

The VW-owned company upgraded its advice from Wednesday this week when Porsche in the UK confirmed that the German HQ had halted all new deliveries of the hardcore sports car while engineers searched for the cause of the fires.

In the UK just over 100 Porsche 911 GT3s are affected out of a global total of 785 cars sold since deliveries started late last year. Deliveries of a further 1,000 cars have been halted, according to Porsche.

“Safety is the top priority and owners have been advised not to use their car,” a spokesman for Porsche in the UK told The Telegraph. Porsche will offer to transport the car back to the dealership for an inspection of the engine, however the spokesman denied it was a recall. “It’s not a recall in the strict sense of the word. We’re offering customers the opportunity to bring the car back.” He said that Porsche’s investigations in Germany into the cause of the two fires had not yet been concluded.

The widely acclaimed GT3 is the latest in a long line of similarly badged 911s admired by Porsche fans for their light weight and race-car driving experience.

The new car, which costs £100,540 in the UK, includes active rear wheel steering for the first time to improve high-speed stability and low-speed manoeuvrability. The car’s 3.6-litre six-cylinder engine makes 475bhp to give a 0-62mph time of just 3.5 seconds. Top speed is 196mph.

Porsche isn’t the only maker to be cautious about fire incidents. In 2010 Ferrari recalledall models of its then newly launched 458 supercar after a spate of fires were traced back the glue used to secure the rear wheel arch lining to the car’s chassis, which was found to be liable to catch alight when the car was driven for a long time at high speed.

Last year Tesla submitted its Model S electric car for tests by the US government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to look into a series of fires.